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Tinting a aftermarket ragtop bg with ease and no light gaps.

palmettotint

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palmettotint

palmettotint

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We all know how much of a pain it is to tint a back glass when an aftermarket ragtop has been installed. It's a pain to shrink and half the time there's a light gap after installation. Well here's my answer to this problem!

I started with a 2000-ish Lincoln Town Car. The picture shown here is after the installation of the tint, but it gives an idea of how the ragtop opening is smaller than the dot matrix printed on the glass.

ragtop2.jpg

 

A closeup of the inside of the back glass reveals how the top is much smaller than the dot matrix printed on the glass.

ragtop5.jpg

 

I start on the outside, as usual, by shrinking the tint as much as possible (Which is usually just the middle section). If you want to trim the film closer to the size of the opening, it will shrink a little more as well. After this, I trace the perimeter with a wax pencil using the top as a guide.

ragtop7.jpg

 

Here's a closeup of the line I drew with the pencil.

ragtop6.jpg

 

Now as you would imagine it's not completely shrunk yet! We haven't shrunk very much of the sides, and there's still some on the top and bottom that we couldn't shrink because the top's in the way. We're basically gonna shrink this a little bit later from the inside the car after application. My next step is to transfer the film to the glass cutting board.

ragtop4.jpg

 

Now I simply trim about 1/4" outside the line I drew.ragtop3.jpg

 


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Ryker

Ryker

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I will trim the top then move the film down to anchor the middle and shrink the top, Then move the film up past the top as much as needed then trim and shrink the bottom. Mark and trim out the sides as wide as needed....

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Tintguy1980

Tintguy1980

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I will trim the top then move the film down to anchor the middle and shrink the top, Then move the film up past the top as much as needed then trim and shrink the bottom. Mark and trim out the sides as wide as needed....

x2 but the grease pen does take away the chance of slicing into the ragtop.
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